Detox

Looking for the ideal summer salad to take care of your body but you want to enjoy your meal? Let me share with you a salad recipe that is freshy so fresh, super tasty-yummy and healthy! I learned it from my mother that learnt it from my grandmother that learnt it from…. ok it’s a family recipe you got it and it is called Tabbouleh! This recipe is from Lebanon but since my mum is from Senegal (learn about Senegal in the article: 5 reasons to discover Senegal) and we have some Lebanese in my family there, I had the chance to get to know how to make the authentic Lebanese Tabbouleh! And the original recipe has really nothing to do with what you can buy in the supermarkets. I won’t lie to you, it takes time because you need to chop finely a lot of stuffs but you can prepare a big Tabbouleh and enjoy it several days. This fresh salad is ideal to eat like a starter or to have with a barbecue! Just thinking about it, I have the mouth wet and it is the time for me to eat! Bisous, I’m leaving you to have my meal now! Melissa ♡

Tabbouleh recipe

Ingredients (4pers):

1 bunch of spring onions

1 boot of fresh mint

1 boot of fresh parsley

2 medium tomatoes

4 tablespoons of bulgur wheat

1 cup boiling-hot water

Salt & pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Fresh juice of 3 limes

Preparation:

Chop finely the onions, mint, parsley and cut the tomatoes in small squares

Pour the bulgur in a bowl and add the cup of boiling-hot water. Then cover the bowl with a little plate and let stand 15 minutes.

Once the bulgur has swelled place it in a big plate, add the onions, parsley, mint, tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Combine well and keep the tabbouleh in the fridge long enough to serve it fresh.

♫ It’s the final countdown ♪ (tou tou tou touuu.. toutoutoutoutouuu!!!) before summer holidays! You can’t wait for the holidays to begin but at the same time you feel it is too soon to achieve your summer body? Relax and be patient because there is no magic and healthy way to get fit in just 1 month. Building a new body shape takes min 3 months and maintaining fit forever means that you need to embrace a different lifestyle and change some of your habits. In addition, as we are all unique, some tips that may work for one person will unfortunately not work for another. As we get older, the body changes and you may also need to readapt your routine. Having a fit and healthy body is a lifetime project! OK I have to confess that I am not a nutritionist and I cannot pretend that I know everything about everything. In fact, I never really needed to loose weight because I started eating good and healthy since my childhood thanks to my mum. She used to cook delicious and balanced plates everyday so I always had a loving and happy relationship with food. Later, I started to be interested in healthy living, wellness, met some experts and inspiring people and read a lot about this topic. So I am writing this article to share some habits that I always had or tips I learned, tested and that are actually totally integrated in my lifestyle. These tips are easy, simple and accessible for anyone. Ready to be hot on the beach next year? Bisous, Melissa ♡

15 tips to get fit:

1. Basic rule: If you want to loose weight you should eat less calories than you actually burn. The easiest way to achieve this goal is to stop to eat before you feel completely full and have a heavy stomach. If you eat more than you need, you are forcing your body to digest extra food that is not needed and you will have a bad digestion. Having a good digestion is key to loose weight and get fit (obviously since you are going to the loo 🙂 ).

2. No diet: Don’t follow any short-term diet but change permanently your lifestyle. Diets cannot work forever and may really affect your body and health. Do you really think it is healthy and ethic to eat just proteins during 1 week or just drink juices? In fact, when you adopt a diet that tells you to eat just 1000 calories per day although your body is used to 1800 calories, you will really loose weight. Then when you will come back to your usual diet with 1800 calories but your body was adapted to 1000 calories, you will immediately stock all the fat because finally your body doesn’t need anymore these calories. See your body remembers and if you have a lack of some nutriments, you may pay it later with health problems.

3. Drink water and champagne when you have the opportunity: Start your day with a glass of warm water. First of all this simple anti-aging gesture will detox, hydrate your body and you will have a more beautiful skin. Drinking enough water also helps to get fit because it boosts metabolism to burn fat, helps in digestion and prevents constipation. Finally drinking at least a glass of water before a meal helps to eat less by making us feel full.

4. Cold shower: Try finishing your shower with cool water on your legs to stimulate your blood circulation. A bad blood circulation is one of the main causes of cellulitis. In addition, cold showers can really help you to burn fat. It is scientifically proven that when your body is exposed to cold temperatures, it generates heat by burning calories to keep you warm. Also to maintain a good circulation, avoid crossing your legs. Ok it doesn’t mean you have to sit in a vulgar way neither!

5. Don’t skip a meal on purpose: when you skip a meal in order to loose weight although you are hungry, you are going to decrease your metabolism and stock fat during your next meal. The weight you lose may come from muscle, not fat. In addition, you will feel frustrated to skip a meal because food is life!

6. Listen to your body: the quantity of meals you take doesn’t really mater. Just eat when you are hungry. If you are not hungry when you wake up, don’t force yourself to take your breakfast. Bring a fruit or prepare something that you can eat later in the morning when the hunger comes. If you are not hungry at the dinnertime, just go to bed without eating, it is not that necessary anyway to eat before to sleep. Trust me you will feel very fit and good when you wake up. Also don’t wait your next meal starving and suffering! Personally I cannot feel happy and cannot focus at work if I am hungry. You can eat earlier or have a healthy snack such as a fruit or almonds. Eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full will help you to consume an appropriate amount of calories.

7. Balance your plate: my trick to manage the quantity I eat (and it looks very rude) is to serve my plate only once but make sure I have enough quantity. This way allows you to have a total control of the quantity of food you are eating. You can imagine how confused I was when I started to live in Spain and had to share tapas with 10 persons! Eat a bit of everything but feel free to eat as many vegetables as you want because they contain vitamins, fiber and minerals. They are low in fat and help the digestion. You can eat more for the breakfast and lunch but have a light dinner. Don’t mix ingredients that together are not easy to digest. For eg, don’t mix proteins with carbohydrates (good bye dear pasta carbonara) or proteins with proteins (no more royal bacon or CBO…). Obviously you can mix vegetables with everything.

8. Eat in a happy mindset: your thoughts and feelings can affect your body. Don’t you have insomnia, appetite and digestive problems, tiredness or headaches with anxiety? (Read my article 5 yoga poses against anxiety) If you eat in a happy mindset, you will have a good digestion and this is good to get fit. If you feel guilty and a real monster to eat a chocolate bar, it really doesn’t worth it. Leave it for another moment when you will really appreciate it. Try to eat less in front of your computer or television and accompany your meal with a nice conversation. A recent study said that when you take a picture of your plate before to eat, it increases the pleasure when eating it. Are your surprised?

9. Eat slowly: when you eat slowly, you masticate more and generate more saliva that helps the digestive process. It takes about 20min from the beginning of a meal to start having a satiety feeling. So the slower you eat, the less you eat because you give your body time to recognize that you’re full before you have finished your plate. Take the time to appreciate the smell, colors, taste and textures in your plate. Personally when I love a plate, I eat very slowly to enjoy it a maximum. My boyfriend is quite mad at me because he is finishing his plate when I am only starting mine and has to contemplate my happy face when waiting for the dessert ahah.

10. Balance your mind: Obsessed, extremist and narrow-minded people are not cool. So have a break (have a kitkat), preserve your social life and happiness. Allow you to eat a very big, fat, oily, cheesy, alcoholic meal at least once a week and in a happy mood please. Don’t feel guilty. I usually eat healthy all the week but do not really take care in the weekend and I feel good and happy this way. Another thing, I am actually eating as less as possible meat, salt, sugar, flour and cow milk. However when I go back to France, there is no way I refuse to eat a creamy and smelly cheese on a crispy baguette with a cup of wine although this little pleasure contains cow milk, gluten, salt, flour and sugar! It is not scandalous to make exceptions but scandalous to be so exigent and closed minded towards yourself and the others.

11. Cook: try to cook as often as possible and use fresh products. If you don’t like cooking or don’t have the time, prepare salads or cook simple plates for several days. Really try to avoid as often as possible prepared meals, cans and processed food because they are usually full of sugar, salt and chemical ingredients that make you fat and damage your health. The way to cook is also very important. In order to cook with less fat, you can boil your eggs, prepare your fish or vegetables in the oven or steam them. The healthiest fat your can use to cook is the extra virgin olive oil, it is high in antioxidant, reduces the risk of heart disease, strengthen and protects the immune system, controls the bad cholesterol and boost the circulation.

12. Ingredients to eat: if you integrate some healthy ingredients to your daily meals, you are already doing 80% of the job to get fit! Here are some of the best ingredients that burn fat and facilitate digestion: Green tea, green coffee, artichoke, pineapple, lemon (read my article lemon water), oats, red pepper, spinach, apple, broccoli. If you are not vegetarian, you can also integrate proteins such as eggs, white meats like turkey, chicken and some fishes such as salmon, tuna and sardines.

13. Ingredients to avoid: sugar, salt and fat. Be careful because sugar is not only in candies or cakes. It is totally everywhere, you can find it in almost all the cans, alcohol, bread, potato and pasta contain sugar and some fruits contain a lot of sugar such as the lovely cherries. Avoid eating more that 2 fruits per day, don’t eat them at night and make your own juice or just eat a fruit. You can replace the sugar by stevia or honey. The salt is responsible for water retention, blood circulation disorder and generates cellulitis. Try to put very few salt and replace it by herbs and spices. And finally avoid as often as possible these 2 bad fats: saturated fats (in fatty meat, lard, palm oil, butter) and trans fat (in margarine, biscuits, packed food and processed food such as pizzas, potato chips).

14. Workout: If you want to get fit and tonic, it is compulsory to move a bit your butt. The ideal is to do some workout at least 30 min 5 days a week and alternate: 1 day of cardio/ 1 day of exercise. You can test some crazy body challenge such as the Bikini Body Challenge proposed by Kayla Itsines. However, if you cannot (like 99% of the people on this planet), try to walk as much as possible, take the stairs, practice bicycle, be a disco or tweerk queen on the dansefloor on Saturday night fever… find the best solution that can better adapt to your situation.

When I settled in Spain, I was so impressed by the beautiful landscapes of the countryside with all these lemon trees. As I decided to have a healthier life, I started making research about the lemon which is growing in every garden here. And yes, our grandmas were definitely right, the lemon has extraordinary virtues for the health and we forgot them! So I’ve changed my morning routine and I actually wake up each morning with a fresh lemon water which is an excellent detox drink and a lot more! I know, it doesn’t sound really fun to replace a Tropicana juice for a lemon water ahah. But here are 6 reasons why the lemon water is good for you and so we should listen more to our grandma’s witch remedies:

You won’t be sick this winter: the limon kills the naughty little batteries and helps to equilibrate the PH of your body which is just vital.

You are not constipated: its juice is stimulating the digestion, you will go to the loo in the 5 next min 😉

It helps you to get slimmer: the lemon is an appetite suppressant and rich in C vitamin which helps to burn calories ! By the way, the fruit has only 19 calories

You will keep a young skin: in addition to its detox and diuretic properties, the lemon has hydrating virtues that will help you to have a healthy skin. The C vitamin and antioxydant contribute to reduce the wrinkles and fight against the aging of the skin

You have a fresh breath: no need to take a tic-tac, the lemon is refresheng the breath but that’s not a reason to forget to clean your teeth right?

So are you convinced now? If you want to benefit from the properties of the lemon water, you just have to press your fresh lemon in lukewarm mineral water, and drink your preparation around 15min before your breakfast! Bisous, Melissa♥